Demographics Of The United States

The United States took more than 100 years to reach its first 100 million people, however it took half the amount of time to reach 200 million people. Currently the United States has a total population of 312,626,000, which makes up about 4.5% of the world's current population (7 billion). Now 4.5% seems like a small number, but this means that for about every 20-25 people, there's one American. The United states makes third place on the most populous country, behind China and India. Originally, the United States started of on the East side, Jamestown. But then they expanded westwards until now we have the United States, however it didn't stop there. Now, people are moving southward and westward, despite that New York is still the most populous city in the United States. The city of New York consists about 8 million people, yet the state of New York is not the biggest state. The runner-up is Los Angeles with about 4 million people and Chicago with approximately 3 million people. You wouldn't really be surprise why New York and Los Angeles are the two most populated cities.

 What's hysterical is the fact that it took only a century for the United State's population to triple itself from 76 million in 19000 to 281 million in 2000. However, the replacement fertility rate  is below the world average by about 0.35 percent where it ranges from 0.85%-0.89% for the United States' and is 1.19% for the World's. An average American women gives birth to 2.06 children.The median age of the country is around  36.8 years old. The majority of the country ages between 15-64 at 67% which provides a good dependency ratio. An average household earns about $46,000 and it ranges from 26,500 with a high school education to 70,900 with a doctorate degree or 82,500 with a professional degree. The social classes is mostly composed of the middle class and working class, which displays a good environment.

United States divides its population into cohorts through time, starting in 1910-1912. The first group are born between 1910-1920, and they're known as  the Depression Cohort. They suffered from the Great Depression and World War 1. The second group is the Pre-World War 2 Cohort, which ranges from 1920-1930 and then the World War 2 Cohort, from 1930-1945. Following these two cohorts are the Baby boomers #1 and Boomers Cohort #2, which include rock and roll, sexual freedom,women's movement, Kennedy, Nixon, disco, etc.  The next generation is Generation X. People in this generation are born from 1965-1980 and they are the smallest generation. In this generation, events such as the end of the Cold War and Oklahoma City Bombing are included. The people in this generation seek for emotional security and many grew up with a single parent. The last two generations are Generation Y and Generation Z (Y2k babies), which includes the present. These two generation overlap each other, where Generation Y lasts from the 1980-1999 and Generation Z lasts from 1995-present day. This group is more connected with social network services and the internet. The Afghanistan war and Iraq war, 9/11, Great recession are all included. This generation differentiates from the others because it emphasizes on social and community service rather than military services. The laws are also more strict on minors. Now in Generation Z, the people in this group are opened to social groups are more right winged in terms of politics, economics, and religion.

The population of the United States consistently shifts around. Some pull factors include 1900s were higher wages in the North. During this period, World War 1 and 2 occurred which created job opening positions, which pull people to move.

 According to New York Times and the Census Bureau, 12.4 %of the United States' population consists of immigrants. That's approximately 35.7 million, which is more than the population of California! And even though about 72% of the United States' population is white, there are a lot of minorities influencing the country itself. The most obvious one is the media, where we see rappers, singers, ballers, and footballers. Further more, the population of Hispanics is going to lead the population of original pilgrim Americans.

The Census Bureau expects in the following years for the United States to be:
2010- 307,745,538
2020- 336,031,546
2030-  363,811,435
2040- 400,527,776
2050- 420,080,587
Now we see that by 2040, we hit 400 million and we are at the 4th demographic transition stage. Our birth rate is at 14 per 1000 per year and death rate is at 8 per 1000 per year, which is really low. The population of the country continues to grow, which may lead to chaos.

Resources: http://geography.about.com/od/obtainpopulationdata/a/uspopulation.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States

http://www.infoplease.com/us/census/data/demographic.html

http://www.census.gov/